I’d like to give you an update on copy protection for Risen 2. We know that this topic is important for you which is why we want to be as transparent as possible. As mentioned before on several occasions, we regularly evaluate copy protection systems on the market for our product portfolio. In our role as publisher for entertainment software, a set of basic requirements has to be met by the technology we deploy:

Security: The copy protection scheme in question has to be very secure for the customer as well as the publisher.Compatibility: The technology has to be compatible with all hardware components out there.Comfort: The protection has to add value to the player aside to its protective behaviour.Support: The technology has to provide us the means to help customers if the product is not behaving in the expected manner.Reliability: The scheme has to be proven stable over multiple years and many products.

We diligently reviewed many solutions in the last couple of years and in the case of Risen 2 we decided to use the Steam-Plattform from Valve on a worldwide basis.The reasons we decided to go with Steam are:

Steam offers an automated update system which allows all customers to play the latest version of Risen 2 since all patches will be delivered automatically to their PC. Steam has been running stable on millions of PCs out there, so it provides the reliability we need. The digital copy of Risen 2 will also not require two different copy protections on Steam (compared to Risen 1).

Risen 2 will be playable without a DVD in the drive if the product has been added to a Steam account (Steam accounts are free) and will be available for download on other PCs if you’re on the move and still want to play Risen 2. The Steam account itself has been further fortified by the optional Steam Guard system which adds another layer of security. Steam also offers a big array of community features: chats, game groups, achievements and the player can even upload up to 1000 screenshots to share his/her experience in the world of Risen 2. All those features convinced us that Steam offers the right package of features, reliability and security for us.

Naturally we also wanted to keep the restrictions, which are part of any copy protection, as unobtrusive as possible. You will only be required to be online once – to link your game to your Steam account and afterwards you will be able to play offline and without DVD in the drive. You will also be able to install Risen 2 from your Steam account on as many systems you like.

I'm in the same boat. Looks like no Risen 2 for me. Ah who am I kidding we all know I am gonna cave…

Dhruin

July 25th, 2011 23:22

Great news for me.

Melvil

July 25th, 2011 23:33

Not sure why people hate steam, it's not very intrusive or system intensive at all. If it's a question of trust, well, that ship has already sailed unfortunately.

Sin

July 25th, 2011 23:36

Option 1
Register with Steam, activate game, enter offline mode, never use Steam again apart from as an easy updater for patches when you know they are available, enjoy playing Risen 2.

Option 2
Refuse to use Steam, put on sad face, get laughed at by Steam users, don't play Risen 2.

I know which I'll be choosing. I really don't understand people who refuse to use Steam.

darkling

July 25th, 2011 23:40

I'm okay with this. What's wrong with Steam? I still don't get it.. I have enjoyed it as a service for many years now. Hooray for games.

JDR13

July 25th, 2011 23:42

I'm not a fan of Steam, and I'd prefer if Risen 2 wasn't using it, but it's really only a minor annoyance.

Khalus

July 25th, 2011 23:53

Dunno why so many developers keep spending so much money on attempts at blocking their game from being pirated. There has never been any DRM that has stopped a game from being pirated, slowed down by a few weeks yes, but its eventually cracked and distributed shortly there after.

More or less DRM just makes it more difficult and annoying for the legit consumer to enjoy their new game than not.

tolknaz

July 25th, 2011 23:55

No purchase from me then. I'll not support a monopoly.

Xian

July 25th, 2011 23:57

After resisting Steam for years except for games by Valve, I have finally bought into it - I just couldn't resist the sales for the last couple years. I have yet to ever buy something on there at full price. I would prefer no DRM like Good Old Games, but it's hard to get the publishers to agree to that, and Steam has been one of the least intrusive. I got the original Risen from there, which had both Steamworks and limited activations, so I am glad that Risen 2 will do away with the limited activations.

I really just have 2 problems with Steam:
* Email support only which may take days during busy times or weekends to respond. The company had sales of over $1 Billion last year, they could put some of that into live support

* Offline mode is problematic and not always reliable. I have had it refuse to go into offline mode until I connect to the Internet then go into offline mode while connected. The time that I would require offline mode is when the Internet was not available for me. Even when things were working properly in offline mode, I have had it refuse to work out of the blue until I reconnect then go into offline mode again.

Zygo

July 26th, 2011 00:04

Going with Steam now seems a bit short sighted, Steam will be irrelevant as soon as MS gets their game together and integrates their GFWL successor into Win8. If there's one thing valve has shown it's the power of forcing their platform onto every bit of software and system they can, and no-one is in a better position to do that than MS since they can just write it into the OS (and perhaps, oh so accidentally, break Steam every once in a while, Netscape fashion).

Given the prevalence of Steam fans to celebrate everyone being forced to use their preferred system that will be a circumstance I will view with a certain amount of amusement.

Gokyabgu

July 26th, 2011 00:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sin
(Post 1061082967)

Option 1
Register with Steam, activate game, enter offline mode, never use Steam again apart from as an easy updater for patches when you know they are available, enjoy playing Risen 2.

Option 2
Refuse to use Steam, put on sad face, get laughed at by Steam users, don't play Risen 2.

I know which I'll be choosing. I really don't understand people who refuse to use Steam.

Option 3
Buy the disc version of the game. But also download and install the pirated and cracked version of the game which is cleansed all of these ridiculous programs. Play without the malware program that called the steamclient or whatever.

This option was the case for me in Fallout New Vegas and Dungeon Siege 3. And of course will be the case for me in Risen 2 it seems. Why do I have to install third party programs into my computer to play games? Why do they put steam into disc versions that compels the player installing a digital purchase service program. What's the point of the disc then?

Steam protection, is it any good? Show me one game protected with steam that couldn't be cracked at day one. So why bother? Just follow the example of Cd Project with Witcher 2. Trust your customer and customer will trust you.

Formerly there was starforce, now there is steam. I wonder what will be next?

JDR13

July 26th, 2011 00:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gokyabgu
(Post 1061082982)

Formerly there was starforce, now there is steam. I wonder what will be next?

I don't think you can realistically compare steam to starforce.

There is some extreme overreacting going on in this thread.

Drithius

July 26th, 2011 00:58

80mb service that runs in the background. Oh the calamity ~.~

It used to be hip to hate on Steam; nowadays, it's a stale issue and I just don't see why people are drawing a line in the sand over it.

I do, however, think it lame to buy a retail product and have it require Steam. It should be self-contained.

coaster

July 26th, 2011 01:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zygo

Steam will be irrelevant as soon as MS gets their game together and integrates their GFWL successor into Win8.

Unless Steam do something monumentally stupid to alienate customers, I can't see it happening. MS has demonstrated numerous times that they have little love for, or understanding of the needs of, PC gamers.

I'm torn on this - I don't like monopolies, and yet Steam has been generally pretty unintrusive in terms of ease of access, downloads games quickly and offers ludicrously cheap prices during their sales. At present I have about 70% of my DD games on Steam, 25% on GoG and 5% on Gamersgate, mostly due to those sales. Obviously if a game is available on both GoG and Steam, GoG wins, but by definition this only applies to the older games.

TheMadGamer

July 26th, 2011 01:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drithius
(Post 1061082986)

It used to be hip to hate on Steam; nowadays, it's a stale issue and I just don't see why people are drawing a line in the sand over it.

I don't like steam for some of the reasons already mentioned in this thread. But the biggest reason I don't like steam is this:

Customer service is aweful and SLOW - no way to directly contact the company by phone to quickly resolve issues. From what I know, steam is doing pretty well. But that they have gotten away with the kind of customer service implementation that they have for as long as they have, it's doubtful it will ever change and I find it to be shoddy and personally frustrating.

But my disklike for steam isn't deep enough to prevent me from buying a game like Risen 2 if it will be attached to the Steam service. My dislike for Steam is less than my love for Risen and the hope Risen 2 will be even better.

I can say however that I have not purchased a number of games because they are attached to steam but I guess I'm in the minority as steam happily plugs along anyway.

Gorath

July 26th, 2011 01:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Khalus
(Post 1061082974)

Dunno why so many developers keep spending so much money on attempts at blocking their game from being pirated. There has never been any DRM that has stopped a game from being pirated, slowed down by a few weeks yes, but its eventually cracked and distributed shortly there after.

More or less DRM just makes it more difficult and annoying for the legit consumer to enjoy their new game than not.

Disk based copy protection is dirt cheap. Even one day of piracy delay will earn a successful AAA game more money than the CP license costs. Slowing piracy down a few weeks is worth it for publishers.

Steam is indeed DRM. But is it more annoying than having to insert the CD everytime you want to play the game and hope the copy protection mechanism doesn't deliver a false positive? Steam also has advantages.

I haven't seen another probable reason why Steam is used posted in this thread:
In many stores used games are competing with new copies of the same game. But the number of used resales on PC can now be predicted reliably - it will be exactly zero! That's more important than piracy according to several publisher/developer interviews over the last years.
The higher margin compared to retail is certainly also a nice bonus.

DoctorNarrative

July 26th, 2011 01:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by JDR13
(Post 1061082971)

I'm not a fan of Steam, and I'd prefer if Risen 2 wasn't using it, but it's really only a minor annoyance.

Same. My main annoyance with it is having to use the client to play offline games, and having no rollback for patches. At the end of the day though it's minor stuff.

I do dislike DRM, but can anyone really say they are worried about PC games being unplayable someday? Come on…

DoctorNarrative

July 26th, 2011 02:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gokyabgu
(Post 1061082982)

Steam protection, is it any good? Show me one game protected with steam that couldn't be cracked at day one. So why bother? Just follow the example of Cd Project with Witcher 2. Trust your customer and customer will trust you.

I doubt any company thinks Steamworks will stop piracy. It's flat-out ridiculous to even suggest such a thing. What it does do however is give you a platform with sales-driving features like achievements, auto-patching and in-game community features. It also gives you a free and easy way to sell DLC and other add-ons. Also if you want it to it handles leaderboard and multiplayer support, again for free.

It's a very persuasive offer for companies that do not want to make their own platform (EA) or have no need of any of it (most indies).